Inspiring Myself 40 Years Later

I sat in class in 1968. It was my freshman year at Indiana Central College, later to become the University of Indianapolis. To me it was “Dear Old ICC”. Dr. Kellogg was lecturing in Freshman Honors English. It was the first and only honors course I qualified for in college. I loved it, and he was a brilliant teacher. We learned phonetics in a way I’d never heard of. We used Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary to learn the diacritical marks for pronunciation. Eventually someone looked at the front of the book and saw Dr. Kellogg’s name as one of the editors. I was at the center of learning and the world was opening up to me. Even though I failed to maintain honors status and split my major between English and Theatre, Dr. Kellogg coached me through my first short story submission to The Atlantic Monthly and consoled me when it was rejected. He reviewed my concepts for articles in “The Reflector” and suggested that I dig a little deeper. At my wedding, a week before graduation, Dr. and Mrs. Kellogg came through the reception line, warmly took our hands and softly said, “Felicitations.”

Perhaps the proudest day of my college career was the day the first Allen B. Kellogg Director’s Award for contribution to the Theater Department was announced with my name engraved on the first little brass plate on the plaque—a position I proudly shared with Stage Manager Leva Hammond.